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.“I spoke to FBI Director Jackson this morning, and he has instructed Agent Showers to cooperate fully with you.No questions asked.Isn’t that correct?”“Yes,” Showers said.“I’ve been ordered to help you.”“Agent Showers doesn’t think bringing you into the investigation is a good idea,” Gloria Windslow said.“My husband and I feel differently.”“That’s because the FBI hasn’t done a damn thing so far,” Windslow declared.Storm saw Showers’s jaw muscles tighten.He suspected she was biting down hard to keep her response from slipping out.“I got a ransom note,” Windslow said, “the day after those bastards snatched him.They demanded a million dollars, which I immediately agreed to pay.” Windslow shot FBI Agent Showers a disgusted look.“Agent Showers here assured me that if I played along with these sons-of-bitches, the Bureau would be able to catch them when they picked up my money.”“But that’s not what happened,” Gloria Windslow said, cutting in on his account.The two of them made quite a tag team.For not wanting to discuss the case, both seemed eager to do it.“The Bureau here screwed up,” Windslow said.“With all due respect, Senator,” Showers replied.“We followed standard procedures.The ransom was left exactly where the kidnappers had told us to put it.The entire place was under surveillance.”“That money just sat there,” Windslow said, “and no one showed to get my million dollars.They knew it was a trap.Someone tipped off the kidnappers.I just know it.”“We don’t know that,” Showers said.“Well, young lady, something spooked them—like a mule deer sniffing the air when you’re hunting,” Windslow said.“The next morning, I got another ransom note; only now these bastards have decided to play hardball.”Gloria began to quietly sob.Toppers left the couch and knelt down next to the chair where her future mother-in-law sat.Rising from behind his desk, Windslow walked over, too, and put his right hand on Gloria’s shoulder.“This is a terrible thing for my wife to be going through.” He stroked her hair.Continuing, Windslow said, “Those bastards pulled out four of Matthew’s front teeth and sent them to me in that ransom note, along with a photograph.That’s when I decided to talk to Jedidiah.That’s when I decided we needed your help.”Storm looked at Agent Showers.She had placed her right leg over her left one and then wrapped them so tightly together that she now had her right toe tucked behind her left ankle.Her arms were crossed against her chest.Even someone completely unfamiliar with body language would have recognized how frustrated she was.“I’d like to see the two ransom notes,” Storm said.“Agent Showers will get them for you,” Windslow said.“Now, I’d like all the women folk here to skedaddle for a few moments so I can talk to Jedidiah and his man in private.”“C’mon, ladies,” Gloria said, rising slowly from her seat.Toppers instantly fell in line, but Showers didn’t move.“Senator,” she said sternly, “as head of this investigation, I need to be involved in every discussion that you might have that involves the kidnapping.”“I have things to say in private, Miss Showers,” Windslow snapped.“I was assured earlier today by Director Jackson that I would have your total and full cooperation.Do I need to have him replace you?”“For the record,” Showers said, “I think you are making a mistake bringing this outsider into the case.”“For the record,” Windslow replied, mimicking her, “I asked you to leave my office.”Showers walked out the door.“Jedidiah tells me,” Windslow said to Storm when she was gone, “that you’re a man who knows how to find people who don’t want to be found and that you can handle yourself in extremely difficult situations.”Jones said, “He’s my go-to guy.If it were my stepson, I’d call him.”“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” Windslow said.“I need someone who can track down these bastards and do whatever is necessary to free my stepson.Do you understand what I am telling you?”Storm said, “You want results and you don’t care how I get them.”Windslow smiled.“Finally, I’m getting the sort of answers I wanted.Yes, this is exactly what I want from you, Mr.Mason, or whatever the hell your name might be.I asked Jedidiah to get me someone who isn’t worried about legal niceties.I asked him to get me the best.”Storm didn’t respond.“First, I want you to track down these bastards, and then, I want you to kill every one of them.I’m not worried about you reading them their legal rights and arresting them and getting them some fast-talking lawyer whose going to bottle this up in some long, drawn-out trial.I want them dead.I want you to get it done before they send more of my stepson’s body parts to my wife.”Chapter FourIt was 8:30 P.M., by the time Storm and Jones left Capitol Hill and arrived at the Willard InterContinental Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, less than a block from the White House.Before they parted, Jones handed Storm an envelope stuffed with hundred-dollar bills, a fake Nevada driver’s license, private investigator credentials under the name Steve Mason, a cell phone that was a direct line to Jones at the CIA, and the keys to a rental car parked in the hotel’s lot.Storm reached his fifth-floor suite at the same moment the phone inside it began to ring.It was FBI Agent Showers calling from the lobby.She’d come to brief him.“Come on up,” Storm said.“I’ll wait for you in the hotel’s restaurant.”Storm joined her five minutes later at a secluded table.“I’ve never stayed in this hotel,” she said as he was sitting down.“But it is famous.Mark Twain wrote two books here.”“We can go up to my suite and I’ll give you a tour,” he said.“I was being polite, making chitchat,” she said.“I’ve no interest in going to your bedroom.”“Too bad,” he intimated.“I was hoping for a full debriefing.”Storm glanced around the mostly empty restaurant.“This hotel is much nicer than the places Jedidiah typically sends me,” he said.The waiter arrived.Showers ordered coffee.Storm ordered a sixteen-dollar hamburger and an eight-dollar beer.When their server left, she said, “And where would some of those places be—where Jedidiah has sent you?”“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”“That’s an old line.”“In my case, it happens to be true.”“Look,” she said sternly.“I’ve been ordered to brief you and work with you.I think I deserve to know who you are.”The waiter interrupted with their drinks.After he’d left, Storm said, “I’m a private investigator—just like Jedidiah said.I used to work for him on occasion when I was in the military.”“Oh really,” she replied skeptically.“I did some checking earlier today after Jedidiah told us that he was flying you into town.He said you were from Nevada.If that’s true, why is there no record of you being a licensed private investigator in that state?”Storm shrugged.“I’ve been meaning to get a license.I just haven’t gotten around to it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]